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Over the last few years we have seen many attempts at VTOL concepts and personal airplanes. Few have been as smooth as the Lilium Jet Air Taxi. This cool little guy can take off vertically and fly at speeds up to 186 mph (same number for range). The Lilium airplane was originally going to be sold as a private aircraft but will now be used for ride sharing only (think Uber of the air). The Lilium Jet uses 36 individual electric fans for vertical and horizontal propulsion and should be on the market in the next few years. Video of the Lilium Jet in action after the break. (more…)

Cora is an airplane that doesn’t need a traditional runway for take-off and landing. With Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) and an autonomous software the folks at Kitty Hawk hope this aircraft will be the sky taxi of the future. This particular model is named Cora and it can fly at speeds up to 110 miles per hour up to 3,000 feet. Video of this helicopter/plane in action after the break. (more…)

Take a DJI drone and make it larger, much larger, add a seat and you have the EHANG 184. While it isn’t that simple, it isn’t that far off. This replacement car of the future is a personal helicopter. Much of the flight systems are automated (like the DJI’s). In recent testing of the EHANG 184 they have flown up to 984-feet high with over 500-pounds, recorded a distance of 9.3-miles with a top speed of 80.7 MPH, and logged 1000’s of manned flights. While I am sure it is safe and will only improve with time, I would like to see an 0h-shit parachute added before I hop inside. More pictures and video of the EHANG 184 after the break. (more…)

Drones, and DJI specifically, have come a long way in the last few years. Flight distances, telemetry, obstacle avoidance, silky smooth gimbals, high quality cameras, and size reduction are just a few of the areas that have improved massively.
DJI has just addressed two more issues in an effort to perfect the quadcopter with their latest DJI Mavic Pro Platinum. The Mavic Pro Platinum has an 11% gain in flight time (30 minutes) and a 60% reduction in noise (4dB less). The

Imagine paddling along in beautiful Orange County, California when a helicopter comes along and warns you that you that you are surrounded by about 15 great white sharks. No matter how relaxing the guys voice on the loud speaker was… that had to be a scary moment. And yes, this is technology related, we have helicopters, composite paddle boards, and a FLIR camera system. Enjoy the video after the break.

The delivery via drone dream is a cool idea but has many hurdles to overcome. The biggest one is the range of said drones. I don’t imagine we will see drones delivery from warehouse to homes/businesses anytime soon.
With that said, UPS’ latest approach seems like a great idea. The plan is to have a drone mounted on the roof of the UPS truck that does out-of-the-way deliveries while the driver continues doing their normal route. When the drone has delivered the package it comes back to the truck and lands for new packages...

Update as of 1/12/2017. After raising nearly $34-million in funding and pre-orders the Lily Drone Project is dead. Refunds to come for those who placed pre-orders.
As much fun as it is flying/controlling your own quadcopter/drone there are times when “follow me” technology is the way to go. I think that is one of the biggest downfalls of the other quadcopter in the market that don’t offer this tech, like the new DJI Phantom 3.
The Lily...

Unfortunately it looks as if the selfie is here to stay, so you might as well improve your selfie game. This tiny quadcopter hopes to take a few users away from the infamous selfie stick.
The AirSelfie is small enough that it fits inside of a cellphone case. Simply pop it out of the case and have it fly up to 66-feet away where its 5MP camera can take pictures or video. The pictures are stored onboard with 4GB’s of memory. Flight...

Hmm. Not sure how I feel about this one. It is either the best or the worst idea. The premise behind The Sunflower Labs system is that you have outdoor sensors (Sunflower Smart Lights) that look like typical accent lights. These Sunflower Smart Lights sense movement and/or vibrations and alert the drone Flying Camera to checkout the potential intruder.
The Sunflower Home Awareness System has me...